A bed to sleep in and a couch where you can relax may be simple pleasures in American life.

A handful of Greenbriar Apartments residents will again know those pleasures after management delivered new furniture Thursday. It has been more than a month since the residents’ furniture was thrown out to halt a bed bug infestation that has been plaguing the apartment building.

The 66-unit apartment building at 121 Waverly Road is low-income housing for seniors and others with disabilities. Feb. 20, management slipped notes under the doors of approximately a dozen tenants, saying employees would be there the next day to throw furniture identified as being infested over the balcony, then taking it away in a Dumpster.

Intrepid Professional Group owns the complex and did not return repeated requests for comment except to say, “The arrangements with the tenant's furniture is confidential.”

Seven families were able to pick out new couches, mattress sets, chairs, a futon and a few recliners at Holland Furniture, said Judy Plaggemars, who with her husband, Paul, owns the store at the corner of 32nd and Lincoln. About 11 apartments were affected. It isn’t clear what makes up that difference.

The new and consignment furniture retailer offered steep discounts and worked within the confines of each voucher — “knowing they didn’t have more money to spend,” Plaggemars said.

When asked why, she said, “I want to be the hands of Christ in the world.”

Engedi Church stepped in as a contact point for monetary donations to help the residents. It passed on the money to Intrepid Management Group, which used it to partially offset the cost the furniture vouchers.

Most of the residents received $1,000 vouchers, said Katie Bach, with the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. One person received $3,000 because specialty or additional furniture had been destroyed.

“We feel like the owner and management are making a good faith effort to take care of this situation, and that’s all we can ask,” Bach said.

Greenbriar resident Sue Coulter refused to give up her furniture on that Thursday afternoon in February.

“I don’t need new,” she said. “I’m content with what I have unless they can show me where there’s something living in it.”

The first official complaint about bed bugs at Greenbriar low-income senior housing came in June of 2012. There have been four more since then. Bed bug infestations are not an issue over which the city of Holland has jurisdiction, said Sue Harder with the city’s community and neighborhood services department.

The bug-sniffing dogs returned to inspect the apartments again Thursday morning and gave them the all-clear, according to a source close to the situation.

Page 2 of 2 - “(Intrepid Professional Management) are really trying to do the best for the residents,” Plaggemars said. “They really have come through. … We’re just happy the residents are getting taken care of.”